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Battle Creek acquires former Lt. George B. Dolliver Jr. U.S. Army Reserve Center

Kalea Hall, Battle Creek Enquirer
Published 6:30 a.m. ET May 3, 2018

The Battle Creek City Commissioners recently approved a resolution for the city to acquire former U.S. government property on Washington Avenue. The property will be utilized for safety training by the police and fire departments.(Photo11: Kalea Hall/The Enquirer)

The former Lt. George B. Dolliver Jr. U.S. Army Reserve Center now belongs to Battle Creek.

Battle Creek city commissioners have authorized the city to accept the title for 135 N. Washington Ave. from the federal government. The property has two structures on nearly six acres of land.

The city plans to use the building for fire administration, fire department training and other emergency management purposes. It’s located next to Fire Station 2.

“The Dolliver Building we are excited about,” Police Chief Jim Blocker said during a City Commission meeting Tuesday night. “We are planning on using it as a joint use facility not just for fire but also with other city uses.”

The center was dedicated in 1960 and named for Lt. George B. Dolliver Jr., a Battle Creek man who served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Dolliver was killed in action on July 12, 1944 in the Northern Mariana Islands. The federal government declared the center a surplus property in 2006.

Blocker has acted as the director of both police and fire since the city’s former fire chief, Dave Schmaltz, went on leave in February and then resigned in April. The search for a new chief is in the beginning stages.

Schmaltz began the work to acquire the property next to Station 2 about a year ago, City Manager Rebecca Fleury said.

The thought from the start was that the building could be utilized for training. A plan was also laid out to have a “safety city” inside the building.

“It’s like a mock city that they build inside the building,” Fleury said.

In the mock city, children could be guided through how to walk through a crosswalk or how to ride their bikes safely.

The only costs for acquiring the property stem from environmental testing required by the state, which is in process now and should cost between $5,000 to $10,000. The property will be used initially for equipment storage and eventually training for both police and fire.

The city has seven fire stations, but hopes to replace five of them with a total of three new stations.

A plan listed in the city’s capital improvement program, which is used to plan for infrastructure projects and equipment upgrades over a six-year period, called for the fire stations at 195 E. Michigan Ave. and 222 Cliff St. to combine in a new station. It also called for the stations at the W.K. Kellogg Airport and 8 S. 20th St. to combine at a new facility on the east side of the airport and for a new facility to replace Station 2 on Washington Avenue. The cost to build the three new stations was estimated at $24 million.

Stations at 1170 W. Michigan Ave. and 2401 Capital Ave. S.W. would be remodeled in the plan.

“I think we will always be looking at how to [best] provide services,” Fleury said. “We love the old stations but as they get older it’s harder to modernize them. We haven’t moved forward on any consolidations.”

Contact Kalea Hall at (269) 966-0697 or khall@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @bykaleahall